The Iranian missile that struck Allenby Street in the heart of Tel Aviv didn't just leave behind architectural destruction. This missile also carved a hole in the heart - and bank account - of businesses in the area, which were already struggling to survive the light rail construction period. In one blow, windows were shattered along with several dreams: the Viking restaurant that was completely destroyed and closed after decades; the beautiful Nourish café, which was destroyed just two months after opening in a restored historic building; Moran Gil's Cakery patisserie, which was energetically preparing for the Pride Parade and was forced to throw everything away; and the Nilus bar, which managed to recover relatively quickly.
"Cucina Hess 4," chef Tamar Cohen Zedek's restaurant, was also hit by the missile that same day. "It happened in the middle of the night," Cohen Zedek recalls. "As soon as I came out of the shelter, I got a call from my partner, who heard the boom from her house. She looked at the cameras and said she saw that the restaurant had crashed and all the glass was broken."
What did you do? "I immediately got organized and came, and so at dawn we both sat outside the restaurant, looked at the damage, and couldn't believe it. The doors were blown open from the blast and the entire iron frame front of the windows was twisted. Police cars arrived and blocked the street, and all the neighbors in the surrounding buildings were downstairs. There was total destruction. In the restaurant everything was glass shards, tiles in the kitchen were broken, the awnings were torn from glass of neighbors that shattered above, and it was very depressing to see all of this. This is our place, it was difficult. The bureaucracy afterward was no less depressing."
How was the restaurant before the Iranian missile? "Since October 7th, work hasn't returned to what it was before. The mood also hasn't returned, there wasn't a feeling of creation and activity. All this time I felt a bit down. It's not pleasant to post photos on Instagram, and it's not pleasant to celebrate at the restaurant, but this is my livelihood, and not just mine - I have employees I employ. In the end, I need to feed my children. So fewer people have been coming to the restaurant in the last two years, and I tell myself I understand them. I also feel less like going out. Young people don't come to our restaurant like they do in Nahalat Binyamin. People with families stay home with their children during these times. Young people continue to party."
A Well-Kept Secret Tamar Cohen Zedek (52) lives in Jaffa with her husband and two children. Her breakthrough in the restaurant business began 20 years ago at the renowned Vince and Tamar restaurant, which brought her and her then-partner, Vince Muster, to the forefront of the culinary scene, with a combination of Italian food she brought from her studies in Italy, and Swiss charcuterie he brought. Later the couple separated and split - Vince opened the Charcuterie restaurant at the Jaffa Flea Market, and Tamar stayed at the restaurant and turned it into Cucina Tamar. Eventually the restaurant closed, and half a year later she opened her place at the corner of Allenby and Hess, where she has been cooking for the last nine years. It's a tiny space (which in the distant past was also Arkady Duchin's restaurant) where she prepares amazing Italian food, the most delicious there is. The restaurant operates three evenings a week, and is run by two women - Cohen Zedek handles the food, and her partner Hila handles everything else. Recently they also started selling fresh pasta, pesto and lasagna at several delicatessens in Tel Aviv.
Instead of being drawn into despair after the Iranian missile, Cohen Zedek chose to rebuild the place. Walls were painted, windows were replaced, the tasting menu was reborn. And from the moment she announced she was reopening the doors, reservations are flowing. "People want to return to sit around the tables, to raise a glass of wine, people are missing this," she explains.
From a 20-year perspective - what has changed in the restaurant industry? "It was always difficult here. I was in the Vince and Tamar space for almost 12 years - three with Vince and nine alone. In the beginning it was easier here, and over the years everything became more and more difficult. Difficult in terms of workers, difficult in terms of regulation. Work ethic is also different today from what I remember. Today people treat work as work, it doesn't come from within. Today I'm here and tomorrow somewhere else. Even today there are still some soulful players and I've been blessed with some of those, but it's hard to find them. During a time of war like this it's also hard to keep a team - think that we were closed for two months and my waitresses had no work for two months. Something is always happening here, and the last two years have been difficult."
You've closed a restaurant before, how does it feel? "I closed Cucina Tamar, and it was like mourning for me. I was ashamed that I didn't succeed and took it very hard. I felt a great sense of failure, and only later understood that you can fall and continue. When it happened I only remembered the bad. People actually had good memories of the restaurant, only I remembered the bad."
What will happen with prices here? "A falafel dish costs 25 shekels, that's also expensive. I try to stay relatively sane but I'm aware that there's no choice because at the end of the month nothing is left from it, and when there's no volume of work, then it's really a problem. Especially in small places like ours that don't work on mass but on quality. I also go to restaurants less and see prices and say wow. I don't work for heaven's sake, this is business and I need to profit otherwise I have no reason to be here. In the last two years, everything we managed to save aside to do what we planned is gone."
And what about the excavations on Allenby? "It will be great when the project is finished, I live in Jaffa and already use the train. As long as they're not digging right on our sidewalk it's bearable and doesn't bother, but seeing Allenby destroyed is a bit sad. I believe the street will recover, and after the train works are finished and there's a pedestrian mall here, this will be a charming and vibrant area. I just hope it doesn't take a long time because on Jerusalem Boulevard in Jaffa you see quite a few businesses that didn't survive the period and closed. For me, the very fact that we reopened the restaurant and there's new color on the walls and dust that we cleaned for two months, this is also a symbol of optimism and renewal for all of us."